Overseas work trips back in full flight as businesses take advantage of open borders

Just months after reopening its borders, China has stormed back into the top five international business travel destinations for Australian firms.

Beijing’s central business district. China has stormed back into the top five corporate travel destinations for Australians within months of reopening borders.

Months after reopening its borders, China has stormed back into the top five international business travel destinations for Australian small and medium enterprises.

Data from travel management company, Corporate Traveller ranked China the fifth most-booked country in the first quarter of 2023, behind the US, Singapore, UK and Papua New Guinea.

A year ago, China was not even on the radar for business travel with less probable destinations including Spain and Fiji cracking the top five.

Corporate Traveller global managing director Tom Walley said it was “reassuring to see the immediate recovery of business travel” to China now that restrictions had eased.

Along with China, Papua New Guinea was seeing enormous booking growth compared to the same quarter last year with a 229 per cent increase.

At the same time demand for the traditional business destinations of the US, Singapore and the UK continued to climb as the overseas work trip regained popularity.

Singapore topped the list of most visited international cities by business travellers ahead of London and Honiara in the Solomon Islands. Picture: AFP

Mr Walley said bookings for Singapore were more than double that of the first quarter in 2022, while the US and UK saw increases of 54 per cent and 69 per cent respectively.

“Singapore is Australia’s largest two-way trading partner and investor in southeast Asia and is Australia’s fifth largest trading partner in goods and services,” Mr Walley said.

“In addition Singapore has 400 firms that provide financial support to small businesses and start-ups which helps to explain why Australian SMEs are so keen to visit.”

As a result, the city-state topped the list of most visited international cities by business travellers ahead of London and Honiara in the Solomon Islands.

Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby also made the top five for the quarter, indicating the increased business opportunities for Australian companies.

Mr Walley said large mining projects in the Solomons and PNG were the main reason for the growth in business travel to the countries’ capitals, while Kuala Lumpur was seeing a rapid expansion of its e-Commerce landscape.

“Australia’s continued growth in trade and business development in southeast Asian and Melanesian countries is demonstrated by the rise in bookings to these cities,” Mr Walley said.

“This also proves how beneficial in-person meetings are to developing international business relations.”

Santorini in Greece didn’t make the top five business travel destinations but it’s scorching hot among Australian holiday-makers looking for a mid-year break. Picture: Getty Images

Just outside the top five was Tokyo which had roared up the business travel rankings since borders came down late last year.

“What the pandemic has done is give small and medium enterprises a real chance to take a step back and evaluate where they want to do business and who they want to do it with,” Mr Walley said.

“The other trend we’ve seen is the strong return of meetings, events, and conferences, with Tokyo always an historical favourite for corporates.”

With the exception of London, business travel destinations were markedly different from those being booked by holiday-makers, according to latest Webjet data.

Top spots for a mid-year holiday included London at number one, followed by Bali, Athens, Rome and Paris.

Athens was particularly “hot” for northern summer seekers, with Webjet attributing the popularity of the Greek capital to an extraordinary following on social media platform TikTok. In fact since the start of the year, videos featuring Greece and its stunning islands had received 12 million views in Australia, leading to a 370 per cent increase in travel bookings.

Originally published as Overseas work trips back in full flight as businesses take advantage of open borders